Or consumers just don't want the product. The simplest excuse is usually the correct one. The tablet was a huge mistake. I'd rather they just stuffed a $350 box with off the shelf mid-range PC components, kept the Wii Motes and added a controller. At least that way, it would be more competitive with PS/ Xbox Next software. If you all missed the EA conference call or headlines, EA isn't referring to the Wii U as next gen and shan't be offering it much support moving forward.

The full quotation is here:

Q: I know Nintendo came out today and was a little bit more cautious with their outlook for Wii U sales, doesn't sound like this is a platform you guys are really pursuing aggressively on. What does this really say about the consumers' willingness to adopt the next-gen consoles — we should have something new from Sony and Microsoft, so what does that say with Nintendo going through the early struggles on the Wii U?

A: So, couple of things. First, you never count Nintendo out. They've got some of the best IPs in the game industry, when their marquee titles show up, that's when you usually see the bounce. I'm deeply respectful of the achievements they've had over the last several years, and so yeah, never really count them out.

Having said that, I wouldn't say that we see much correlation between the results that Nintendo have just shown with the console debut of the Wii U and what we see coming. We see a pretty sharp distinction and unfortunately I'm unable to go any further than that.

Ours is an industry where a lot of devices come in and represent themselves as the next generation or the next generation after that. You know in many ways, we would argue that the gen— what we're describing as "Gen 4", is yet to come — and it's that we're excited about, and that's what we're investing in, and frankly we've been quite consistent with that for some time, recognising the frustration our inability to articulate precisely why, causes for you."

The Wii U tablet is killing Nintendo's hardware margins too, and non 1st party developers aren't, and likely won't, use the tech in any meaningful way.

I see what you are saying but what is to say MS and Sony do have a table built into there next controller?

We don't know anything about the next xbox or Playstation. What people seem to forget is Nintendo don't need 3rd party games to survive as they have there own IP's to fill peoples needs but I do think they will get the backing of AV, EA ect.

People seem to forget that the WiiU is new and its not until 12 to 18 months after a new console comes out we start to see games that really show off what a console can do. Look at the PS3 for example it took along time for the games to show off the hardware to get out.

I think people are expecting massive jumps with the power the next xbox and PlayStation will have and if you look at the PS3 again at the start of the gen then you will see this is not the road to go down. Consoles need to be affordable to have massive sales. Plus if you look at the games that were out the end of this year in Halo, BO2, NFS ect the are games that are on current consoles and are bing ported to the WiiU and why would anyone buy a new console to play a game that they can play on there console they already have.

Once we see the shift in games from 360 and PS3 to the next gen consoles this is when people will make the jump to the WiiU, Next xbox or PlayStation.

The way I see it panning out is that the sales between the next gen consoles is there will not be a big game in sales between all 3 as I see them all offering more or less the same features it will just be what type of exclusive games you want on which console will be picked up as I see all 3 having all the 3rd party games on them.

"I see what you are saying but what is to say MS and Sony do have a table built into there next controller?"

I guarantee you that they won't MC, as MS and Sony have already hedged their bets. MS has Smartglass and Sony has the Vita for second-screen interoperability. Neither one will take the risk of going "all in" with second screens, after watching the incurred costs and lackluster reaction to the Wii U. They'll just work with the tech they have. To that end, I'm expecting to see actual, function remote-play type functions on both the PS4/ Vita and XboxNext/ Smartglass.

Regarding "power", I've said this before, but a mid range PC with a CLOSED architecture, made at manufacturer, mass-production level discounts would produce the sort of output we'd expect from top tier PCs. All this at a $350ish or less production cost. So they could sell it for $400 and make a profit. Also, consoles have stripped down OSes. You have no idea how much bloat is added to performance just by running Windows or from not directly accessing the GPU, which some of these consoles are rumoured to do.

@MCstorm I think its not the tablet that people care about. Its what the Wii U can offer in performance wise when the PS4 and Xbox720 are release. How can developers make games for the PS4 and Xbox720 and try to port to a Wii U which will be inferior spec wise? Developers been asking for a more powerful machine for the last 2 years and Nintendo knew that but they decided to release a console that is in par with current gen. The only choice they have is to develope the games on the Wii U and port it to the PS4 and Xbox 720, but that just holding back the full potential of the developers and the next gen consoles.

Think by naming it wii u. It confused a lot of customers thinking it was just an add on for the wii. The marketing that Nintendo uses didn't really help them at all. Let's just see how well it does as time goes by. All I know is that Nintendo better drop big announcements by e3 because sony and microsoft are going to go hard since new hardware always takes the spotlight. Especially the orbis and durango since everyone has been waiting for them.

i agree with the perception that its just an add on, i got my kid one for xmas and parents that pop round when his playing it just think its a pad add on for the wii, then when i explain what it is they just say "were not paying that much for that, they can just play there wii". Nintendo have made a big mistake in how they have marketed the wiiu and were probably overoptimistic with the casual markets, or parents, desire to pick up a new machine.

Exactly this , I own a Wii U and I passed on the Wii yet every person I know that bought the Wii (mostly casual gamers) either aren't interested or don't know what the system is..... It's difficult to convince the causal crowd which makes up majority of Nintendo's base market to go a buy a 300$ console which many think is a Wii add-on... Nintendo is partly to blame because of the reputation they built as the "family console" and early on the Wii U seems to be slightly opposite of that.

For now the Wii-U will be supported by core gamers , so in turn Ninty support us.... The casuals will come in the long run like every other core console at launch...although I doubt the Wii-U will have the same success as the Wii

Or, to put it in other terms, "we made a machine that does a lot of things but does it with old tech"

Resistive technology on the pad is shameful.

The more times passes by, the more I dislike Nintendo. Never stood their characters, I hate Reggie, I disliked Iwata and with Nintendo direct I hated him more.

I never heard Ballmer or Hirai complain that people didn't understood the 360 or PS3. I frankly hate this irresponsability. If it's not received as you expected you didn't do a great work. The point is that Nintendo itself doesn't know what to do and where to go with this turd of a machine and that's why they can't explain to others.

Lots of 3rd party games will skip WiiU, EA more or less already cut support, expect Rayman Legends to become multiplatform by the end of the year.

It's not about the sales, it's not about the attachment rate, it's not about the hardware quality and not about the software, it's a turd because behind the WiiU there is not a plan, and that's why Nintendo is freaking out.

PS3 in the early days was doing much much worse than WiiU, but Sony said that they had a 10 years plan, they didn't whine.

Yeah, touch screens for me are "whack-a-moles" and small screens are not my cup of tea for gaming experience. Bought a Gameboy when I was youuuuung, bought only Tetris and Battletoids. Loved Battletoids but played Teris much more. I bought a PSP, it collected an amount of dust that is beyond imagination. I have an iPod, bought Infinity Blade 1&2, Rayman, Chaos Ring Omega and guess what...the game I play mostly are Sudoku and Mah Jong.

The WiiU pad is not revolutionary enough in the sense that it doesn't add much. TVremote is nice but it's for sickos mostly.

Fair enough. I don't like touch screens for the most part really. I'm writing this on my phone and if it weren't for autocorrect half of these words would have typos. Touchscreens in general are inaccurate and not suitable for gaming. Give me buttons any day. But saying that, the touch screen that annoys me the least is the gamepad's. The stylus is much more accurate than a finger. I don't know if the gamepad adds much to single player experiences yet; it certainly hasn't proved itself necessary anyway. I like it more for multiplayer games. Couch co-op where each person has their own screen is cool. The everyone vs. the person with the GamePad is fun in NintendoLand. On the rare occasions I used the off TV play feature it was convenient at least.

Typical. Blame the consumer for not finding value in a (as of now) rather underwhelming product. Damn, Iwata has always been the wrong guy to run Nintendo. He's been a paper weight since he became prez during the Gamecube era.

One the few exceptions to that rule was the PS2. But people would have bought it anyway as the follow up to the PS1 and just because it had so many games. Many PS2 owners don't even know agree on what its greatest games are. They just bought one because that's what people did. The fact that it happened to have some very quirky artsy games was incidental to many people. At least they stood out more on the Gamecube because the games library was so much smaller.

Then show it. Consumers are not stupid and would rather see the "value" in practice and not just talked about

I personally think the Wii U gamepad isn't as big of a value as Nintendo thinks it is. If it was a full competitive tablet then sure but the fact it is fairly useless outside the home is putting people (the mass market) off. Obviously can't talk about power because we have no idea what competitive system are like

That's cause you don't own one that's why you say that feature for feature it's better then any of the other 2 consoles right now all it's missing is some games and why would they make it a competitive tablet no body plays real games on those plus they got a great hand held console out right now that's selling millions I own a ps3 and Xbox 360 and haven't touch mines since the wii u came out but I will be playing them soon cause bioshock and tomb raider and crysis 3 will be coming out and that's nintendos problem there's none of the first quarters big games going out for them but that will change come next year plus they got there own exclusives and no one sells better the Mario lol

I have a wii U and to me its very gimmicky. I feel like the Tablet portion of the game was forced into some of the games with out any real thoughts put into it. Tablet was great for Zombie U but super mario it was really really difficult to coordinate with the person you are playing with.

Consumers Know the Value of Ninty's new product for sure and its a terribly imlemented console and a laughing stock to consider it NextGen.

Worst Console Ninty's come out with since Gamecube. After a shock and fluke comeback with original Wii, Nintendo's gone back to its original self. Trying to be too smart and think they are too good for everyone. Ninendo, u will be put back in your place to where you belong. Failure this gen could be the end of them.

IF PS4 even gets released this year. I have read for months that Sony may not release PS4 till 2014 and this week Sony said they were going to let Xbox launch first. I really don't think 720/PS4 are going to come out at the same time. IF that does happen Sales will suffer, people will have to choose between one or the other, as most people will not have $1000 dollars PLUS to pick both up. I really doubt Sony/Microsoft are going to sell more than 3 Million in the same time frame it has taken Nintendo.

Hater are allways going to hate but he's right I have a bunch of friends that hate Nintendo and they would never buy one of there consoles but when most of them came over to see the wii u and actually played one for a while all of them were blown away by the features it has and that's the problem right there Nintendo has to first get the systems in to people homes for them to appreciate it cause it's hard to sell it with one little demo at GameStop etc but once it's at home you start to see how great having off tv play or the Internet right there is me I have all the consoles plus a red riding hood steam pc which is very great at running games at high settings and out of all them I'm currently enjoying the wii u the most right now

"I have a bunch of friends that hate Nintendo and they would never buy one of there consoles but when most of them came over to see the wii u and actually played one for a while all of them were blown away by the features "

Then show them the value . Most of your actually worthwhile launch games were delayed , the rest being games they already had elsewhere with no massive new advantages , even for the best ports ... or that they didnt care to purchase to begin with .

At least now some of us , myself included , are holding their breath and pining for some of the newly shown and announced titles from the japanese front , but they are still quite far from being released .

or people are just not interested in it right now? Lots of ports from other consoles, and a new 2D mario. Nothing to be wow about. I still dont understand how this console is working and what is special about it tbh. i tried Mario 2D in a shop and what was shown on tv was shown on gamepad. i dont see what is impressive about that.

i'm personnaly waiting for Zelda or a 3D mario before i get one, and that wouldnt happen before some years.

A lot of people over a certain age don't massively like handhelds. Even if it's just as a matter of what is necessary- if you always game at home you'd rather play it on a big screen.

Even more people don't like using a handheld in conjunction with a TV when what's on the TV screen is supposed to be the core attraction.

When a new console comes out if it's not a graphical step up from one of your COMPETITORS then your console can be regarded as being merely the fourth entry in the same generation - and it's a bit late to join that party.

One year's chosen gimmick is not always the next year's chosen gimmick. The Wii may have some classics like Super Mario Galaxy but a lot of people not particularly interested in gaming bought a Wii as a gimmick.

I think that WiiU sales will pick up, oddly, after the next Xbox and PS4 launch, as a second console. Then it will be possible for players to put the WiiU in context of what it offers as part of that generation.

Even at the beginning, the 360 and PS3 had some pretty solid downloadable games. Since day one on both systems, they were releasing solid titles on their respective online stores. I don't get what Nintendo's holdup is. :/ They're pretty much just getting multi-plats on the Wii U right now. The Cave is fantastic, but it's cheaper on Steam and I expect it to be in a sale on the PSN at some point, so I'll get that version, too. The Wii U has no value to me, as is.

The Wii was raised to fad level. It caught on because it broke through the typical gamer customer and to the common population. Everyone I knew had/has a Wii, even my mother. The motion controls coupled with Wii Sports is what started it all and the media was there to boost it up and feed it to the general public. The Wii U has no such luck. 90% of those I know that own a Wii (not talking your typical gamer) don't even know it exists, never mind bought one. Very few will pick one up as they just won't see it for anything more than a Wii with a bulky pad. If Nintendo was trying to target the same market that bought the Wii, they whiffed big time on this one.

poor US marketing, little to no games, little to no 3rd party support, was marketed as a tablet more so than a next gen console, parents thought "hey Timmy is this just an attachment for your Wii?" "Is it a new handheld"... what is it? So now it has catered to "casual touch based" gamers. Mobile gaming and tablet gaming enthusiast. I'd say the ending results are expected...

All this talk is very similar to the PS Vita where the same can be said that 'Consumers have not understood its value' as well.

Just like the Vita the Wii U is a very good platform that just needs the support that it will probably will get, but it doesn't happen overnight. We all know that Nintendo's first party software is unmatched & they are coming to the system.

I believe the issue with the Wii U is just that the name. Consumers are confused by it thinking it is just another version of the original Wii. That was a mistake for Nintendo to name it the Wii U cause it doesn't differentiate it.

Ahah, have people actually read the article? “Regarding the Wii U, it is now clear that many consumers have not understood its product value,” explained Iwata. “We would like to work thoroughly for its penetration.” He does say that consumers have not understood its value, but he recons that it is nintendo's fault so he says that nintendo "would like to work thoroughly for its penetration". Just my view of things

Shhhh... Sony tried that with PS3, but people don't like being "talked down to."

Rather, say something like, "we will strive to make our system's value more apparent to the consumer through our continued effort and support in the arenas of software development and features, because as we well-know, Sony and Micro's kicka$$ consoles are on the way and... What's that? Yeah, and how many processors did you say? Right. Five times the memory? Really... Please excuse the interruption, I seemed to have crapped myself."

They've done a bit of a Sega really by calling it the Wii U. There'll be some suspicion as to how long they intend to support it. The question in some people's minds will be 'But when's the Wii 2 coming out then?'

I like how people assume so many thing like they are fact or this and this will happen or that and that will happen how about y'all shut the fuck up and just wait but so many things are obvious but peopke on this site and many others hate facts